Episode 3: Bridging the gap in eye care

The Guardian

14-02-2025

Tanya Morris, acting country director, Indigenous Australia Program, The Fred Hollows Foundation
Jeena Tan, head of clinical systems, Specsavers
Jolene Cheah, optometrist, Specsavers
Cliff Axelsen, farmer, Armidale
Auson Wu, optometry partner, Specsavers Fairfield
In this episode of The Future Looks Bright, we take a look at the challenges of delivering essential eye care services to some of the communities that need it most: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, multicultural communities and people living in regional and rural areas.
According to the 2016 census, about 2.3 million people, or almost 10% of Australia's population, live in small towns.
Specsavers is the largest provider of optometry in Australia, with almost 400 practices nationwide, but in 2023 about 40% of locations in the Specsavers network had an unfilled optometry vacancy, with more than 60% of those in outer regional locations.
Specsavers' head of clinical systems, Jeena Tan, says: 'There are less optometrists and less eye care professionals living in those regional communities to be able to provide that sort of timely and regular eye care service for people who need it.'
Outside Armidale, in the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, we meet farmer Cliff Axelsen. He is just one of thousands of Australians who have struggled to access timely, preventative eye care in their regional communities because of a shortage of optometrists. 'You've got to travel to a major centre for you to have an eye test or anything,' he says.
But an optometry practice in his local town has begun offering an innovative approach to eye care services. At Specsavers, a local clinical technician assists a Melbourne-based optometrist in providing remote eye care, a telehealth eye exam, for Armidale residents.
So far more than 400 Australians have had remote eye care appointments as part of Specsavers' ongoing pilot to help make eye care more accessible across the nation.
Delivering comprehensive and culturally appropriate eye care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who desperately need it is a priority for The Fred Hollows Foundation and its eye care partner, Specsavers.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are three times more likely to go blind than other Australians because the health system is not meeting their needs.
Specsavers supports the foundation's important work through equipment donations and financial contributions. And a skilled volunteering program gives Specsavers optometrists the opportunity to give back to remote and under-serviced communities by providing them with eye care services.
Tanya Morris, the acting country director of the Indigenous Australia Program with The Fred Hollows Foundation, and a proud Bar-Barrum woman from the Atherton Tablelands, says the needs of First Nations people are complex, with many diagnosed with conditions such as cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and trachoma.
Providing culturally appropriate healthcare in which patients are supported by Indigenous healthcare professionals and liaison officers makes a huge difference, Morris says.
'The way we get things done our way is word of mouth,' she says. 'So if an elder or somebody says, 'Hey, that wasn't too bad, it's not that bad', [people are] more than likely to go.'
From regional NSW, we head to Fairfield, a suburb in western Sydney. It's one of the most culturally diverse communities in Australia, home to migrants and refugees who collectively speak more than 80 languages.
Auson Wu is a Fairfield local who grew up here and is an optometry partner at Specsavers Fairfield. He's concerned about the rising rates of glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and cataracts in his community.
Just like Morris, Wu says building trust with his community, providing culturally safe and appropriate care, and educating people about eye health, are essential for creating change and meeting long-term eye care goals.
Equity in eye care requires creative community solutions and technological advances to address the 90% of vision loss experienced by Australians that can be prevented or treated.
Through the dedication and innovative approaches of healthcare professionals and organisations such as The Fred Hollows Foundation and Specsavers, a more equitable future for eye care in Australia is on the horizon.
The Future Looks Bright is produced by Guardian Labs Australia.
Narrator: Fenella Kernebone
Series producer and editor: Cinnamon Nippard
Guardian Labs producer: Ciara Bowe
Lead Commercial Editor: Nicola Harvey
The Future Looks Bright is paid for by Specsavers.
Find your local Specsavers store for optometry & audiology services https://www.specsavers.com.au
Help support The Fred Hollows Foundation https://www.hollows.org/
Find out more about The Fred Hollows Foundation and Specsavers partnership https://www.hollows.org/corporate-partnerships/specsavers/ https://www.specsavers.com.au/specsavers-community-program/fred-hollows-foundation
Find out more about Deadly Enterprises, Australia's first Aboriginal-owned optical provider https://www.deadly.health/